Film: Bakasura Restaurant
Rating: 1.75/5
Cast: Praveen, Viva Harsha (Harsha Chemudu), Garuda Ram, Srikanth Iyengar, Krishna Bhagavan and others
Music: Vikas Badisa
Director: SJ Shiva
Released On: 8 August 2025
Bakasura Restaurant is a film featuring comedian Praveen and Viva Harsha in the lead roles. Promoted as a comedy horror, the film was expected to be a rib tickling entertainer that could give a dose of fun and mild thrills to the audience. Let us see what is on the menu here and how well it is served.
The story follows Paramesh played by Praveen, a struggling private employee who lives a bachelor life with his friends Vaman, Sai, Palli and Bhargav. Among them Vaman aspires to be a filmmaker while the rest have no ambitions and live off Paramesh’s income.
Frustrated by his pressurised job and financial struggles, Paramesh dreams of quitting and opening his own restaurant but he needs at least Rs 50 lakh to get started.
To make money he starts a YouTube channel called Bindass Bachelors and begins filming vlogs in haunted places. During one such shoot he finds a book on tantric vidya and hoping to gain the money through supernatural means he and his friends attempt certain tantric rituals.
This awakens the spirit of Bakka Suri played by Viva Harsha who then enters their lives. What the spirit does next and how it affects these bachelors forms the rest of the story.
Unfortunately neither the story nor the narrative makes much of an impact. The opening is decent but the subject lacks depth and focus. A gluttonous spirit that only comes to eat food fails to evoke fear sentiment or even consistent laughter and ends up feeling awkward and unengaging.
The film also struggles with basic aesthetics. Scenes of cooked food being dumped on the floor mixed with curries and sambar churned together and eaten with the left hand are more nauseating than scary and it is puzzling how the makers did not realise that such visuals on a big screen could make the audience feel sick instead of entertained.
The dialogue writing is equally poor laced with lowbrow expressions like gunde jaari guvvaloki vacchindi sudda pagilipoddi and g moosukuni. Families who came expecting clean comedy from the lead actors were instead met with distasteful lines.
The climax even includes an over the top and unnecessary transgender scene that feels forced and uncomfortable. In several places the humor is stretched beyond its limit making the scenes feel repetitive and tiresome rather than engaging.
On the performance side Praveen does fine in his typical middle class role.
Viva Harsha is okay but his flashback story is shallow and lacks emotional depth, making his character more of a caricature than a strong horror, comedy or sentimental presence.
Srikanth Iyengar performs well as the strict and sarcastic company boss and leaves an impression despite limited screen time.
Garuda Ram appears in just a few scenes and is adequate.
Other supporting actors perform as directed sometimes naturally and sometimes over the top.
Krishna Bhagavan makes a return after a long time appearing in a few scenes with his signature dialogue style though without much humor.
From a technical perspective the background score is good and suits the mood of the story. The songs are handled well with 'Nee Lungi Jaateeyam' and 'Ayyo Emiraa Jeevitam' being contextually relevant.
Cinematography is passable but editing could have been much sharper as many first half scenes are repetitive and overly long.
Production design is functional but there is no notable attempt to get impressed.
To sum up, director SJ Shiva could have handled the subject more subtly and with better aesthetic sensibilities. The weak writing cannot support a full fledged narrative and the flashback and redemption arcs are underdeveloped. Even in a comedy horror there should be consistent suspense and humor but this film delivers neither. To top it off the rolling titles hint at a sequel and if that happens a far more polished script with stronger character development will be essential.
Bottom line: Not Enough